From the Pulpit: ‘To whom, what do you pledge your allegiance?’
It is wise to often consider the course of our lives as well as their brevity. Socrates is credited with saying that the “unexamined life is not worth living.” Today, I’m going to invite you to consider perhaps one of the most important questions you can ask. To whom or what do you pledge your allegiance? Perhaps you have served to defend our nation, county, city or state. As school begins this week, many class rooms, board rooms, and meetings will begin with an unusual ritual that many of us grew up practicing. Pledging allegiance to the flag.
One of the ideas that has made America great is that our nation is committed to the idea of equality and freedom. Countless men and women have given their lives to serve this dream called America. In a day and time when we consider many opinions, perspectives and ideas, remember that our right to express our own thoughts and ideas was not that long ago something that was not considered inalienable. Freedom belonged to those who could afford it, or take it. America beams brightly, yet imperfectly in a world filled with tyranny and evil. Consider our current situation in the Middle East, and around the world. Freedom is not something that we can take for granted. America has been hewn out of a tyrannical story, and marches forward into an uncertain future.
“Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.” – Aristotle
While America has certainly championed freedom, she did not create it. Free will is a gift from our creator. In the life of Jesus the Nazarene, we see GOD incarnate, giving up the rights that He possessed, to serve the will of GOD and the good of man. Jesus came to Earth in order that men and women could be made right with God. His atoning death was a willing and free choice, given for you and I.
One day, perhaps in our lifetimes, perhaps not, this country will come to an end. However, the Kingdom of God, initiated by Jesus Christ is eternal. He will one day return to rule over a new heaven and a new Earth. In times of uncertainty, I can assure you, and stake everything I am and know on the fact that Jesus will return, to judge and restore His creation. My encouragement to you is to consider where your allegiances lie. The next time that you have the opportunity, please consider if your loyalty lies with the flag, or the One under whose name it flies, and by whose principles it was founded.
As Abraham Lincoln charged those that listened to him that fall day in 1863, “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
The apostle Paul in his early letter to the Galatians believers, articulates a message that no doubt informed Lincoln’s, and now must equally animate our country.
“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.” – Galatians 5:13
